Angry with Republicans’ surprise recalcitrance against a bipartisan bill to expand eligibility for veterans’ benefits, Senate Democrats on Thursday threatened the equivalent of the nuclear option: delaying the start of the sacrosanct Congress pauses until the bill is passed.
In an expletive-laden press conference with leaders of various veterans groups, Senate Democrats let go of Republicans for voting in favor of a bill that would allow soldiers, sailors and airmen exposed to pits of burnt waste in combat areas to be covered by veterans. Health care system affairs for related diseases.
“It’s total bullshit. It’s the worst form of over-politicization I’ve ever seen. It’s total BS,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York.
“I’ve been in this business for 25 years, between the state legislature and here, and I’ve never seen anything like yesterday,” said Sen. John Tester of Montana.
The press conference was originally scheduled in hopes it would be a victory lap for veterans groups, but on Wednesday night the bill failed to clear a procedural vote in the Senate. , where he needed the support of 10 Republicans. He only got eight because many Republicans who had voted for the bill in previous form voted to keep the debate open and prevent a final vote.
The timing of these votes, coming almost at the same time as news broke that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia (D) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had reached an agreement on a tax and climate change bill, led some to say Republicans were venting their anger over the Manchin-Schumer bill on the unrelated veterans bill.
“Republicans now basically want to help the hostage veterans because they’re crazy,” Manchin told reporters Thursday.
Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey flatly dismissed that idea in a brief hallway interview with HuffPost.
“Let’s be very clear: it’s a lie. If someone tells you that, they’re either very ignorant or willfully blind,” Toomey said. “It’s just dishonest, so let’s be clear.”
Toomey said his objections related to how the bill would be funded and that he made those objections known in June.
“Now how did I know on June 23 that Manchin and Schumer were going to have a deal that they would announce on July 27?” He asked.
“Let’s be very clear: it’s a lie. If someone tells you that, either they are very ignorant or they are willfully blind.
– Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.)
Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said Congress should not go into its traditional August long recess until the bill passes. In the House, where the bill passed in a hugely bipartisan vote of 342 to 88 on July 13, lawmakers are expected to leave Washington on Friday, but the Senate is not expected to leave until next week.
“We’re staying until it’s done. As long as the Republicans try to block this, we’re staying here, we’re still meeting,” Brown said.
Toomey, who has the support of Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on his stance on the vet bill, said the standoff could be resolved quickly.
“I don’t know how long they want to drag this out. It would pass this afternoon if they wanted to do it this afternoon,” he said.
Every year lawmakers threaten to delay or cancel the August recess in an attempt to get what they want. And almost every year, that congressional equivalent of having the class stay after the last bell never happens. If it happens again, lawmakers could try to take up the bill again in the fall — although it’s unclear whether being considered during the campaign season would help or hurt its chances.
Comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime veterans advocate who attended the Democratic press conference, gave his own rant on the impacts of the delay, calling the senators “turtles” who see no urgency because they don’t face the same challenges as regular people.
“They never lose their jobs and they never lose their benefits and they never lose all those things,” Stewart said.
Referring to veterans, however, Stewart said, “They’re not on Senate time. They are at human time, at the time of cancer.
“You don’t have any family? Don’t you have people who decide how to live their last moments? He asked.
The Huffington Gt